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How much of Earth's atmosphere must we contaminate? How much of our lands and waters must we pollute? How much of our resources must we plunder, deplete? How many species must we ravage, despoil, extinguish? How many people must we degrade, deprive, destroy with toxic wastes and wars, before we learn to respect one another, to live in harmony on this planet, our Home? "All living beings are brothers and sisters, nourished from the same source of life.." -- Thich Nhat Hanh

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Location: Brampton, Ontario, Canada

I was born in Eastern Europe during the height of the Stalinist regime's reign of terror. Thus, I know what it is like to live under a repressive, dictatorial regime. The fear and terror -- as dissident friends and family members were tortured, imprisoned and some were executed -- is indelibly etched in my memory. That is the reason I have always been an ardent advocate of freedom, social justice, civil liberties, human rights and a voice of peace. The way I see it, war is morally wrong, regardless of who wages it, for whatever reason. No piece of land or commodity is worth the sacrifice of one human life. We are all members of the same race - the "human race" - and must learn to coexist peacefully. Our planet cannot sustain us much longer if we do not stop our wars, nukes, polluting, deforestation, and the wasteful, gluttonous consumption and depletion of our natural resources.

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    Sunday, April 23, 2006

    Six Nations Update: 'How to Survive a Siege'

    MNN. April 23, 2006. The source of the false alarm was discovered. Someone, in this case, a native, seems to have instigated another false alarm. This person is acting as a tool to disrupt all attempts to achieve a peaceful solution.

    The deliberate attempt to disturb people's sleep and make us live in constant fear is a familiar tactic. We saw it before at the seige of Kanehsatake/Oka in 1990. Now that Six Nations/Caledonia is under seige, it is worth remembering what was done to us then.

    The master mind brought in by the Canadian government was a Col. Musgrave. We saw his picture in the papers. This little Eichmann even had a little mustache like Hitler. He had sharpened his claws by becoming Britain's expert on psyhchological warfare tactics used against the Irish. He announced that it would take 3 weeks to break us down mentally and psychologically. We weren't duped. It just didn't work. It didn't seem to have worked for the Irish either. They sent him packing back to Britain.

    But that doesn't seem to be stopping them from trying the same shit again. They used it at Gustafsen. They used it at Burnt Church. The OPP think they got it right at Ipperwash when they shot and killed Dudley George in 1995. They're trying it again here.

    Let's take a look at the Kanehsatake/Oka prototype. They flew helicopters over our heads all night long and shon blinding bright lights through our windows to disturb our sleep. They flew jets low over our heads. Apparently if any women were pregnant they could miscarry. They knew we had a television in there, so they made misleading news reports. They showed big bunkers, 50 calibre machine guns and all kinds of weaponry we never knew we had. This was designed to scare the public. We were laughing. If we had that kind of firepower and their kind of mindset, we could have wiped out the whole city of Montreal. Remember, they were attacking us. We weren't attacking anybody. They were trying to provoke us to take the first shot. We never did. Part of their attack included cutting off or interfering with our communications with the outside world. (They've already done this at Six Nations/Caledonia). Based on our experience we can expect more harassment and interference. At Oka they turned our water and electricity off and on. They stopped food from coming in. When they did let some through, it was old and rotten and the soldiers had peed in the juice. (That's right, they urinated in the food we were expected to feed to our children). What could we do. We took the rotten eggs and threw them right back at them.

    Their dirty tricks weren't limited to adolescent pranks. Snipers were assigned to take out anyone they thought might be a leader. They did not hesitate to use weapons on children. One 14 year old child was bayoneted in the chest right next to her heart while protecting her 4 year old sister. When we came out of the Treatment Center, they gave us all a darn bad beating. Harassment continued against us for years.

    It wasn't just police and army violence we had to watch out for. False media information was used to incite violent attacks against us by red necks and psychologically unstable members of the general public. At one point in the crisis, we had organized an evacuation of elderly people and children from Kahnawake. The rabble rousing media found out about this. They called out to all the hooligans in the neighborhood to rush out there at the end of the Mercier Bridge and to do their worst. The Quebec police kept the convoy trapped on the bridge for hours until a large crowd gathered. When the captives finally drove off the bridge, the cops stood and watched as the crowd stoned, beat the people and crushed their cars. One elderly man died of a heart attack the next day. Another a few days later. All for the sin of thinking that the Canadian forces would act with minimal standards of decency. Despite the public outcry about what happened in kahnawake, the same tactics were used at Burnt Church to sic French fishermen on their Native neighbors. We are already seeing the same tactics at Six Nations/Caledonia where local drunks have attacked the people at the barricades.

    In Kanehsatake we had a doctor's phone which they could not disconnect. We found one place in the field where we could make an emergency call. We carried on.

    The person who set off today's false alarm let themselves become tools of the colonizers? Maybe they want to feel important. Maybe they're bored and want excitement in their lives. This is a dangerous game. It can cost lives. In the fairy tale, the boys who played wolf sent out so many false alarms that no one would listen. This made it possible for the wolf to move in for the kill undisturbed. That's what the military tacticians are hoping they'll be able to do here. We know they're set to move in. The reports that the army has taken over a hangar at Hamilton airport are real. The reports that children in Caledonia were kept out of school on Friday were real. The attack would have happened then if they thought they could get away with it. Don't be fooled. The wolf is still lurking in the forest. Six Nations remains under seige.

    If Canada was really interested in a peaceful solution, it would withdraw the troops, raise the white flag, withdraw the troops and leave. They don't even need to negotiate with us. All they need to do is to pull out their archival documents and look for the root of their title that they used to give Henco Industries the right to move onto our land. All we've ever been asking for is, "Let's put our documents on the table". They don't want to do this. We know why. They could not give Henco a valid title because they did not have one themselves. They have been perpetuating a fraud that began almost 200 years ago. They have violated the honor of the Crown by failing to keep the promises made by General Halidimand in 1784.

    If Ontario needs to negotiate with anyone, it should be with Henco. They're the ones who gave him the false title.

    Canada is not likely to seek an honest and peaceful solution. Let's take stock of where we stand now. Democracy is under seige. The rule of law is under seige. We have to figure out how to survive this. We need your support. The more non-native supporters there are, the safer it will be for us and the safer it will be for the rule of law and world peace.

    These sleepless nights and the endless fear of not knowing when we will be attacked or who might be killed, is not helping matters one little bit. We have at least one youth still in prison simply because the only name he has is Mohawk. They want him to produce a colonial birth certificate. He's being denied his inherent right to his Indigenous identity in violation of international law. When Canada is showing itself so willing to violate international law, when Canada has a history of using violence and armed force against Indigenous people, how can anyone sleep at night, how can we hold off our heart attacks.

    Living under seize is an art. What we learned at Oka is that humor is the best medicine. We looked at things from our perspective. That helped us to see that Canadian behaviour was silly, as well as dangerous. We remembered our ancestors. We continued our ceremonies. We remembered the faces that were coming to us in the next generations. We survived and so did our friends and allies. Our children grew up together. Many of us have grandchildren now. They know what we did. They're proud of us. When we were under seige, our brothers, sisters, friends and allies on the outside kept up the pressure and saved our lives. Thank you.

    Supporters, if you want to send us a flag from your country to show your support, we will be honored to hoist it alongside the Indigenous unity and Confederacy flag. Sign it and send it to Haze Hill, RR#6, Hagersville, Ontario Canada N0A 1H0. Deliver it in person. We'd be glad to meet you.

    Kahentinetha Horn
    MNN Mohawk Nation News

    posted by Annamarie at 6:37 PM

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